Riding Club - New York

All built environments are made up of more than just houses. From government buildings, to shops, to recreational facilities, we are surrounded by structures to provide for the support of our houses and lives. In this blog I will investigate some of these other buildings as well.

At the beginning of the 20th century, horses were still a major part of American life, not just for transportation, but also for recreation. And in many cities, facilities for recreational were built in proximity to public parks where riders could access the bridle paths which were laid out for their use.

Founded in 1881 as the Gentlemen's Riding Club at the old Dickel Riding School at Fifth Avenue and 39th Street, its name was changed in 1883 to the Riding Club. Soon after its 1883 re-organization, the club too possession of a new $60,000 clubhouse on 58th Street nearby Central Park. When this clubhouse was built, the private entrance was on 58th street, and the entrance for riders was on 59th street. this was before the introduction of trolleys on 59th street. The land was leased from the Astor family and the clubhouse consisted of a large 200' x200' riding ring, on which an immense general sitting-room looked out through a partition wall of glass. It also contained a general dining room, separate private dining rooms, drawing rooms, reading rooms for ladies and gentlemen, and private dressing rooms where the ladies could keep their habits and dress at the club. The stables were very fine and complete in every way.

Hallboys and liveried footmen guarded the double entrances on the 58th Street side.  The ladies' parlor and reception room were each a long room, beautifully furnished, with rich carpeting and rugs, and handsomely decorated and ornamented. Ladies, in a great variety of plain colors, flocked to the club from morning until evening, and had their own lockers, dressing rooms and bath rooms. And the clubhouse was distinguished by butlers and stewards in knee breeches, with their calves so padded that The Prince of Wales would feel quite at home with one to wait upon him. The grand dining room on the third floor featured a mahogany table that could be extended to more than 70 feet. And an innovative ventilation system removed the "foul air" in the stalls and riding ring. There were clipping rooms, feed rooms, stalls for 300 horses, and a "hospital" on the top floor.

One of the strongest motivations for the new clubhouse was to gain a horse gate on 58th Street which would avoid having to dodge trolley cars on 59th Street, thus allowing riders to have firm control of the horse before crossing Fifth Avenue and entering Central Park.

In May 1905, a battalion of workmen piled into the building with axe and saw and hammer and began the work of translating the old familiar environment into memory. The club commissioned Bradford Lee Gilbert to renovate the old structure into an even more lavish one.

Gilbert paid special attention to the color scheme of the facade. The brick was contrasted with warm yellow caen stone, and the metal elements were given an antique green patina.

In October 1906, the Riding Club opened their new home at 7 East 58th Street, just off Fifth Avenue, and running through 59th Street, costing $250,000. It fronted 125 feet on 58th and 59th Streets with depth of 200 feet.

The exterior of the clubhouse was a modified French chateau, the porte-cochere being suggested by the shed on the end nearest Madison Avenue. (Originally there was to be a complete entrance of the sort, upheld by pillars on the curbstone, but the New York City Building Department objected.) This was the principal entrance for women and children. The entrance for men adjoined the riders gate at the Fifth Avenue end.

Windows on each floor within the building opened on the riding ring, but there were to viewing galleries for onlookers about the ring. A skylight of leaded glass illuminated the riding ring in daytime and electric lighting was provided for evening riding.

The tanbark ring was surrounded by light green walls with a skirting of ornamental tulips in glowing colors at the base. The tulips reappeared beneath the cornice, while the roof was a vivid sky blue. 

The riding rings was 104' x 173' and there were 406 stalls in the stables, with room for 50 more, with standing and cleaning spaces, saddle and bridle rooms, and isolation stalls for sick horses.

And the ventilation system was completely overhauled, so that the air in the stalls and the ring was changed every eight minutes. For all practical purposes the riders were exercising in the open air.

There were offices and reception parlors on the first floor of the 58th street side, and baths and locker rooms on each floor. There were also billiard, smoking, and card rooms for men, and as complete a club in all details for the women members. The Riding Club was the first "family club" in America, if such a term existed at the time.

In addition to the separate entrances for men and women, there were also separate elevators, and a room and a ring window for maids in attendance on children. 

There was a very complete set of kitchens and similar rooms on the top floor, where there was an artistically furnished Moorish dining room and a palm garden on the roof for summer dinner parties, with galleries for musicians. There was also a private dining room for women.

And while perhaps alien to most today, there were strict rules for children at the club. Children were not allowed in the ring after 4pm, no rider under 16 was permitted in the musical rides, and only girls under 14 were allowed to ride astride in the ring or with the class in the park. 

The Riding Club abutted the Hotel Savoy, erected in 1892, on its 59th Street side. Early in 1924 the Boomer-du Pont Properties Corporation purchased the leasehold on the hotel. The group had already purchased the Waldorf-Astoria in 1918 and the Willard Hotel in Washington in 1920.  It now expressed an interest in replacing the Savoy with a 33-story hotel estimated to cost $18 million. On April 18, 1924 it was announced that Vincent Astor and the estate of William Waldorf Astor had sold the property occupied by the Riding Club for $2 million.  The buyer was Boomer-du Pont Properties.  But the new owners were faced with a problem, the Riding Club held a twenty-year lease on the land which did not conclude until 1935.

On October 6, 1926 property on which the Riding Club stood was sold to the Savoy-Plaza Realty Corporation. Then in November of that year, the Riding Club purchased the Durland Riding Academy at 7 West 66th Street. When the Riding Club moved out, no time was wasted in demolishing the former clubhouse, just over twenty years old. The new 31-story Savoy-Plaza hotel opened in September 1927. It too was replaced in 1965 by the General Motors Building, which today occupies the entire block.

The Durland Riding Academy, which the Riding Club now owned was commenced in January 1900, when George Durland submitted plans, drawn up by Henry F. Kilburn for a $100,000 stable and riding complex, to replaces his earlier riding academy on Columbus Circle. In March 1901 Durland opened his new stable complex on a "T" shaped lot on 66th and 67th Streets. 

The academy was a two-story building, with two five story wings and fronted 100 feet on West 67th Street and 200 feet on West 66th Street. Built of orange roman brick, with brownstone trim, it featured a huge 200'x100' tan bark riding ring, and undertruss roof, and balconies to seat 600 spectators. On the west side, fronting on West 66th Street was plain 5 story wing for the stables with stalls for 400 horses, as well as carriage storage. On the east side, fronting on West 66th Street, was a more ornate five story, with a basement, wing. It featured club rooms for riding clubs, a smoking room, a reception room, dining rooms, a ladies’ parlor, and in the basement, there were dressing rooms, marble baths and 250 lockers. This east wing had an ornate portico, a cornice, projecting window bays, and shields bearing figures of horseshoes. The New York City Parks Commissioner ever has an entrance the Central Park added at West 66th Street on Central Park West, specifically to accommodate the Riding Academy and provide access to the Central Park Bridle Path.

The Riding Club held on at this new location for almost ten years, until it was dissolved in March 1936, closing on May 1, 1936.

At this time the old Durland Riding Academy building returned to use as a public riding facility. And in March 1947, a group purchased the building with plans to restore it to its grandeur. However, in July 1948 ABC television purchased the building for use as its new television center.

In the 1980s westerly end, which was formerly the stables and carriage storage wing, was demolished. The rest of the building, the former riding ring and the clubhouse wing, still stands today, an architectural monument to a time when horses were still a common sight, both in Manhattan and Central Park.